1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a self-running robot, and particularly, to a self-running robot used to provide security.
2. Description of the Background Art
A conventional self-running robotic cleaner, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 06-098844 includes: a charge and power supply unit providing a direct voltage; a microprocessor that receives the direct voltage provided by the charge and power supply unit; a key input circuit that receives an action condition and an action command from a user to provide the action condition and the action command to the microprocessor; a thermal infrared radiation sensing circuit that senses thermal infrared radiation from a human body and a pet and provides a sense signal thereof to the microprocessor; a forward/backward movement motor driving circuit that receives a drive signal from the microprocessor to rotate a forward and backward motor thereby rotating a driving wheel either forward or backward; a steering motor driving circuit that receives a drive signal from the microprocessor to rotate a steering motor thereby changing the direction of advancement for the driving wheel; an ultrasonic wave transmission circuit that receives an ultrasonic wave signal from the microprocessor to transmit ultrasonic wave; an ultrasonic wave reception circuit that receives ultrasonic wave transmitted from the ultrasonic wave transmission circuit and reflected from an obstacle; and a cleaning motor driving circuit that receives a drive signal provided by the microprocessor based on a received signal to drive a cleaning motor to effect cleaning.
The above invention can reduce the production cost of a product and reduce the cleaning time, providing improved cleaning performance.
A conventional mobile robotic system, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-282533 includes a mobile robot that autonomously moves and performs tasks and a management device that directs the mobile robot to perform a task, the mobile robot including a control device that allows the robot to travel to the management device upon experiencing an external or internal influence, and an information transfer device that exchanges information with the management device.
According to the above invention, the mobile robot travels to the management device when a task of the mobile robot is to be interrupted or a task is to be started again from the beginning, facilitating the transfer of a direction by the management device to the mobile robot in the middle of a task. Moreover, information can also be transmitted from the mobile robot to the management device, thereby providing for the transfer to the management device of information on e.g. ambient situations including the presence of an obstacle obtained by the mobile robot, allowing the management device to issue corresponding directions or perform corresponding processes based on the information.
A conventional human detection arrangement, such as that disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-350555 includes: a first sensor that senses the presence of a human within a first sensed area; and a second sensor that senses the presence of a human within a second sensed area smaller than the first sensed area, characterized in that the presence of a human within the first sensed area is sensed using the first sensor before sensing the presence of the human within the second sensed area using the second sensor to sense the direction of the human.
According to the above invention, the direction of the human can be determined in a simple manner.
Unfortunately, the inventions disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Nos. 06-098844 and 11-282533 do not provide easy tracking and sensing of the movement of a human body, since pyroelectric sensors are incapable of locating a human within the sensed areas.
The invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-350555 requires higher manufacturing cost than is acceptable for a device merely for tracking and imaging a human body, since it fails to deal with noise generated during tracking and imaging of a human body.